


Polka Dots

by inlovewithnight



Category: Bandom, Cobra Starship
Genre: Canon Jewish Character, Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Friendship, Gen, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-21
Updated: 2013-02-21
Packaged: 2017-11-30 00:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/693311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inlovewithnight/pseuds/inlovewithnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Victoria was the only one he was nervous about introducing to Erin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Polka Dots

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alpheratz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alpheratz/gifts).



Victoria was the only one he was nervous about introducing to Erin, when things got serious enough that he was introducing people to her who mattered. He made a list when he realized he was really falling in love, a list of people and what the introduction process might be like.

  * Pete. Gabe loves her, therefore Pete will love her. They can talk about fashion. She's kind and poised; she won't be dazzled by him and she won't let him steamroll her. Pete is no sweat. 
  * Travie and Bill. Gabe loves her, so they'll like her. She and Gabe don't fight all the time, so they'll like her _more_. (More = more than the baseline, and also more than they liked Bianca, which really, maybe, should have been a clue for Gabe to pick up on. When two of his best friends wouldn't be in the same room as his girlfriend if they could help it, maybe that should've been a sign sooner than it was.) 
  * Ryland. She makes Gabe happy and takes him to parties where people sip champagne instead of injecting cocaine directly into their eyeballs. Well, at least not out in the open. Ryland will be on board. 
  * Alex and Nate. Do not care who Gabe is dating. 
  * Papi. If not for the fact that Ricky married Nina, Gabe would worry about Papi not liking Erin because she's not Jewish. But his reaction to Nina made it pretty clear he just wanted weddings and grandbabies, religion optional. Once that was settled, Papi immediately got the same criteria as Pete: Gabe loves her, so he will, too. 
  * Ricky. Gabe does not care what Ricky thinks. 
  * Victoria. 



That spot on the list stayed blank for days.

He didn't think that Erin would be jealous, or anything like that. Yeah, Victoria was gorgeous. She was rich and talented and smart as hell. Erin was all of those things, too, and she worked with models every fucking day; other women being gorgeous or sexy didn't faze her in the slightest. She was, like. Above that, or something.

The problem was a lot more petty and embarrassing, which Gabe realized when he finally forced himself to sit outside in actual weather, his hair getting more fucked up by the minute -- long enough to make himself look the facts in the face.

The problem was that Victoria could tell Erin a lot of really ugly things about Gabe. And all of them would be true. He earned every one by being a dick and a disaster and Dr. Jekyll in badly-fitted suits who sweet-talked a kid into his band and dragged her along through the drama in his own head. The Second Rise and Fall of Gabe Saporta.

And, yeah, she'd signed on the line, but she hadn't known she was walking into _that_. She deserved a hell of a lot better.

He brooded over it for a week, then longer -- until he realized that he was waiting for a plane to take him to LA for business that could've easily been done from any New York Starbucks where the wireless wasn't crushed under the weight of porn and Facebook. He had made the plans under the assumption that he wanted to see Pete. He had plans to meet up with Carden and Ross, too, a couple of drinks and some laughs apiece. If he didn't let people forget him, he could never disappear.

But that wasn't what this fucking trip was really about at all.

He texted Victoria as soon as he got to his seat. _hey la hoya im on my way to your coast. dinner tonight? xoxo_

He didn't get her answer until the plane landed, but it made him smile to see it come up when he turned his phone on. _make it dinner & movie & pedicure and its a date._

Dinner, movie, and pedicure all took place in her living room: Thai takeout, something on Netflix starring Daniel Craig's abs, and him concentrating as hard as he could on making the stripes of pink and black she wanted evenly spaced. Nail art was a fucking discipline. He could write a book about painting nails as meditation.

"I'm kind of surprised you're here and not at Pete's," she said, muting a scene with the wrong ratio of explosions to abs. "Isn't the first night usually TV and stir-fry?"

He bit his lip and capped the black polish. "I switched the schedule up because I needed to talk to you."

"About what?"

He didn't answer for a moment and she rubbed her heel against his thigh, frowning. "Gabe? Are you okay?"

"Did I ever apologize to you?"

"About what?"

"All the shit I pulled. All of it, any of it, just... did I ever apologize?"

She rolled her eyes and tugged at his curls, smiling a little. "You said sorry like fifteen thousand times."

"Did I ever really make you think I meant it?"

Her smile faded and she looked down at him for a long moment. "Give me one more to top it off."

He leaned in to rest his forehead against her knees. "I'm sorry, Victoria. You deserve better. I'll be better."

"I believe you." She bent to kiss the top of his head. "It's okay now."

He shook his head, looking up at her. "There's gotta be restitution."

"How exactly are you going to do that?"

"I'm gonna treat you like a princess every time I see you from now on."

She ruffled his hair again, laughing softly. "I like the sound of that."

"And maybe I'll give you free dresses from, um, my great new girlfriend. Who I want you to meet."

She blinked at him, then grinned. "Erin, right? You guys? For real?"

"Really for real."

"Oh, you have to tell me everything." She sat up and nudged him with her heel again. "After you finish doing my nails. Consider that your restitution, too, Saporta. Then you can do my fingers -- with polka-dots."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Image inspired by asofterworld.com. Text from "New Edition."


End file.
